Taylor Swift Gets Political in VMAs Acceptance Speech

Taylor Swift won big at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards on Monday night (Aug. 26), and she used the major exposure as a platform to discuss her personal political views

Swift first won for Video For Good for "You Need To Calm Down," and handed over the microphone and spotlight to her co-executive producer, Todrick Hall.

During her second win, the top award Music Video of the Year for "You Need To Calm Down," Swift once again brought the cast of the music video to the stage.

"I just want to say that this is a fan-voted award," Swift told the crowd. "So I first want to say thank you to the fans, because in this video, several points were made. So you voting for this video means that you want a world where we are all treated equally under the law regardless of who we love or how we identify."

"At the end of the video there was a petition and there still is a petition for the Equality Act which basically says we all deserve equal rights under the law. And I want to thank everyone who signed that petition because it now has half a million signatures which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from The White House," Swift said, pointing to an invisible clock on her wrist while the crowd stood up and applauded.

"I love my cast. I'm so grateful to everyone in the video. The ones who are here, the ones at home. Thank you," she continued. "I love my co-executive producer. I'm so grateful to my co-director. Thank you to the fans for everything you do for us. Thank you for being the example that you are. I love you guys so much. Thank you!"

After her speech, another influx of people signed the petition. Ellen DeGeneres even tweeted about the petition as well as signing it herself.

The 2019 MTV Video Music Awards took place at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, hosted by actor and comedian Sebastian Maniscalco.